Prinx taps Mesnac affiliate for Malaysia tire plant equipment

Hong Kong – Prinx Chengshan Holdings Ltd. has awarded a further Yuan116 million (€14.7 million) in equipment orders to a subsidiary of Chinese rubber machinery supplier Mesnac Co. Ltd. for its new tire manufacturing plant in Malaysia.

In a stock exchange filing, the tire maker said its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Prinx Malaysia, entered into three Phase II purchase contracts on 29 May covering hydraulic curing presses for all-steel and semi-steel tires as well as an open mixing mill.

The vendor is a Chinese manufacturer of specialised rubber processing equipment wholly owned by Shenzhen-listed Mesnac.

Prinx said the contracts are an “essential step” in ensuring the “timely completion and commissioning” of its Malaysian production base.

The latest orders follow Phase I equipment contracts, again with an unnamed Mesnac affiliate, announced 30 April worth Yuan284.1 million, bringing total equipment commitments for the project to about Yuan400.2 million.

According to the filing, the Malaysian plant's construction and preparatory works are “progressing in an orderly manner”, with the Phase II purchases to be funded through the group's internal resources.

Prinx broke ground on a greenfield tire manufacturing plant in Kedah Rubber City in November last year, as part of its move to expand production footprint and structure.

The €255 million facility covers 1,000 acres of land and will supply core markets such as the US and Latin America.

The first phase of the plant has a designed annual production capacity of 6 million passenger car tires and 600,000 truck and bus tires and is set for operation in the final quarter of 2026.

A “key step” in Prinx Chengshan's global expansion, the Malaysian factory will be what the group has described as a “benchmark project” integrating ‘intelligentisation, greening, and the entire supply chain.’

The project draws on experiences of two smart factories in China and Thailand and features production, R&D and living areas.